


The future will soon be the past

by themunak



Category: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Introspection, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-23
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-15 21:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/854005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themunak/pseuds/themunak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He remembers the exact moment when he'd lost his old l'Cie brand and became a regular human again. If he can get to that point, he can have his magic again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The future will soon be the past

**Author's Note:**

> **Spoilers warning for the end of FFXIII, some parts of FFXIII-2 and some plot points of LR up to 06/23/2013. If you haven't played either games and watched some of the released LR footage, stop reading RIGHT NOW and either play or watch Let's Plays.** Best to brush up on your FFXIII knowledge for this one.
> 
> Writing this was painful. _Painful_ and all the feels this trilogy gives me are horrible and make me want to cry over and over.
> 
> None of these are canon (as far as I can tell), because this comes from headcanon and my interpretation of Hope being a person who cant sit idly and wait for Lightning to save everyone. He's had 500 years, surely he's done something very significant by now.
> 
>  **EDIT (07/03/2013):** I'm well aware of the newly-released screens and renders, so the 'Alternate Universe-- Canon Divergence' tag I put on this fic when I posted it is very much appropriate, and I wont be changing any part of this fic just because of the new releases.

Five hundred years is a long time for a man to be alive, but even with the chaos ripping away time and its effects, Hope has never been one to stay idle.

His people never had the chance to live in the world he'd made for them because of this chaos, and he still wants them to, especially with this doomsday prophecy. At the very least, if he cant stop it, he can give them normal, happy lives for their last few days.

Being regarded as a shut-in for centuries has its perks, and Hope is able to work undisturbed for days, and almost no one comes to check up on him.

First on his agenda is being able to use some kind of power. He knows fighting may become an option, and because he's weak, a typical human, he needs something. But unlike Snow (and it hurts to think about him), he's not willing to ask for a new brand. So he'll just take the old one back.

Paradoxes are notoriously difficult to comprehend, let alone create, but Caius had made so many of them with magic. Magic is not so different than science, except far more free, and Hope thinks he can engineer one with his theories and machines. The future can influence the past after all, because time is not linear, and Hope's memory is still as sharp as ever. He remembers the exact moment when he'd lost his old l'Cie brand and became a regular human again. If he can get to that point, he can have his magic again.

Hope manages to find one more graviton core, and opens ( _rips_ ) a hole through time and space. It's surreal, watching himself falling as Cocoon falls while _he_ is safe inside his own laboratory on the other side of the hole.

(He knows that he'd been that young, but for some reason he has trouble believing it.)

Hope watches Fang and Vanille break away from the circle and merge into Ragnarok from a completely new angle, transfixed because this is an entirely new scene for him. He'd only seen bits and pieces before, and certainly not how they had saved the entirety of Cocoon from crashing down into Gran Pulse. But unlike his own memories, Lightning herself doesn't break away as well. She keeps holding onto his hand, when he remembers that she let go too, with a smile on her face.

 _Paradox_ , he remembers. His memory of this day had been altered, and he's looking at the true events of the Fall.

Just before his younger self and the rest of his friends crystallize, Hope reaches out, wires and needles made to simulate the exact moment of a l'Cie's branding (he remembers how it had been, and still knows how to simulate a fal'Cie, because even though Project Adam had been trashed, everything still remains within his mind), and grasps his own hand.

The boy is surprised to feel it, and their eyes meet for the few seconds that it takes the magic and the eidolith to transfer from Hope to Hope. When Hope feels his younger self's hand start to harden into crystal, he lets go and lets them all fall.

Back in the safety of his lab, Hope rips off the bandanna he's been wearing for years, marveling at the smooth white mark that's back on his skin after so long. It's curious that he doesn't remember the meeting happening to him, and that his memories aren't changed anew, but it must be because his paradox is considered so small and insignificant that it is really negligible.

For the past anyway.


End file.
